Anthony Wakefield Cox [commonly known as Anthony Cox and as Tony Cox; also known as Sir Anthony Cox] was born in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England on 18 July 1915. In 1933 he entered the Architectural Association School in London. While at the AA he was actively involved in the school's social activities and was joint-editor of its magazine, Focus (1938-39). In 1939 Cox was one of the eleven founding partners of Architects’ Co-operative Partnership (ACP) [in 1951 renamed the Architects' Co-Partnership (ACP)], an architectural co-operative all of whom had attended the AA School.
Following the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939, ACP was dissolved. During the war Grice was employed as architect for ordnance factories and hostels under Sir Alexander Gibb and William Holford, and from 1943 to 1946 served in the Royal Engineers.
In 1946 the ACP was re-formed with seven of the original partners, including Cox. He subsequently remained a partner in the co-operative for the rest of his career as an architect.
Works by Cox as a partner of ACP included the Brynmawr Rubber Factory in Brynmawr, Monmouthshire, Wales (1945-51); 5 Bacon's Lane, Highgate, London (1957), his own house; the departments of chemistry at University College, London, and the University of Leicester (1957), the chemistry and biochemistry departments of Imperial College, London; the Greenwood Theatre at Guy's Hospital, London (1969); and the Maudsley Hospital's Institute of Psychiatry in London. In the 1950s he worked on numerous of state primary and secondary schools, mainly in the English Midlands.
Cox was President of the Architectural Association in 1962-63, and taught part-time at the school. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) and was a member of the RIBA's Council from 1967 to 1972, and its Board of Education from 1967 to 1973. He also served on the Royal Fine Art Commission from 1970 to 1985. In 1983 he was knighted for his services to architecture.
With Philip Groves, a fellow ACP partner, Cox was co-author of Design for Health Care (1981) and Hospitals and Health Care Facilities: a Design and Development Guide (1990).
Cox died at his home, 5 Bacons Lane, Highgate, London on 5 January 1993
‘Architects’ Co-Partnership’. Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects vol. 74, 1967 pp. 229-238
Cox, Anthony. Architects Co-Partnership: the first 50 years. Potters Bar, Hertfordshire Architects Co-Partnership, 1989
Powers, Alan. ‘Chapter 8. Architects’ Co-Partnersip’ in in British Design: Tradition and Modernity after 1948, edited by Ghislaine Wood. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 113-126